By protopresbyter
John S. Romanides (+)

UniversityProfessor

Unfortunately, in our time there have been papist and
protestant influences exerted on Orthodoxy. They strive to convince us,
either that the Holy Bible is the only source of our faith, or that only
the “trained” and the “educated” can interpret it.

In
reality, the only criterion for interpreting
Divinely inspired scriptures is Enlightenment and
Theosis. If one isn’t in these states, then any
attempt to interpret will most probably fall short
of its goal. Naturally, it was not only the ancient
Fathers who were in a state of enlightenment or
theosis; there are latter-day fathers also. But
there are many today who - without having anything
to do with all this – are under the
illusion that they are able to FULLY
interpret the Divinely inspired texts. This is
attributed quite simply to their ego and their
pride.

People
like Teillard de Chardin, in the
papist Church, managed – by implementing a
forged “scientism” –to introduce anti-Christian,
NEW AGE perceptions. Some of our own Orthodox
would like to be doing the same.

As
Saint Simeon the New Theologian also says:

"for what can be
more foul,
tell me, than
those who attempt to teach with conceit and pride
the things of the Spirit, without any Spirit? What
could be
more profane
than the unrepentant and self-purging person,
who, despite this, and with only his
pseudo-knowledge and externally acquired wisdom,
wants to preach Theology, and to audaciously
converse on beings and the eternally being?

(Theological, 1, 271-277, S.C. 122, 116)

We see
how Theological interpretation without being
cleansed of our passions is considered a sin, a
MIASMA according to the Saint.

Elsewhere, he says:

"For
if the realization of true wisdom and the Knowledge
of God was intended to be given to us through
letters and lessons, my brothers, then what need
would there be for faith, or divine baptism, or the
partaking of those sacraments? None whatsoever.”

(Theological and practical chapters 3, 84-86, S.C.
51, 106-108)

But let
us see what father John Romanides says about the
meaning of Divine inspiration.____________________________________

Let us
now go the subject of divine inspiration. An
impression has been created among Papists and
Protestants – which has greatly influenced modern
Orthodox thought – that God gave the Holy Bible to
the Church. This is a point that everyone agrees on:
Protestants, Papists and Orthodox. Furthermore, both
the Orthodox and the Papists agree that God also
gave Holy Tradition to the Church. On the issue of
Tradition, Protestants appear to be revising some of
their views.

It so
happens that today, the Orthodox Church is facing a
peculiar phenomenon:
both in the Old and the New Testament, as well as in
Tradition, one encounters viewpoints that for at
least 150 years have been proven incorrect, by the
progress that mainly positive sciences had achieved.
This of course creates a serious problem to someone
who doesn’t properly comprehend what the Fathers
mean when they speak of divine inspiration. This
problem mainly pertains to the study of the Holy
Bible.

In the
Frankish Tradition that followed Augustine, the book
of Revelations was identified as a revelation of
meanings by God addressed to mankind. In fact, they
were not just meanings, but also sayings; in other
words, they were terms and words that accompanied
those sayings. However, if one accepts this
viewpoint, then we have a case of so-called literal
divine inspiration of the Holy Bible, during which
God appears to be somehow dictating those meanings
and sayings to the scribes of the Holy Bible. But
from the moment that this line of thinking is
adopted, then it must be surmised that the author of
the Holy Bible is essentially God Himself, and not
the Prophets or the Evangelists.

Now,
because Western theology followed this line, an
immense problem upon the appearance of modern
science, which overthrew certain positions of the
Holy Bible, such as the age of the world, which
makes God sound like a liar in those things that He
had dictated in older times.

The
common viewpoint that has prevailed on the subject
of divine inspiration is that the work of divine
inspiration is confined only to that which has been
testified within the Holy Bible. When we say divine
inspiration, the Holy Bible immediately comes to
mind, i.e., the Prophets and the Apostles. Now, if
someone is more conservative, he may possibly also
bring to mind an Ecumenical Council (Synod), apart
from the Holy Bible.
Because to a person like this, the rulings of the
Ecumenical Councils are also divinely inspired. If
he is more conservative, he will bring to mind the
Fathers of the Church. If he is even more
conservative, he will bring to mind the Canons of
the Church, the Liturgical life of the Church, as
well as the vestments of the cleric. So, if
the basis is 50 and the maximum is 100, he will
score 100. He has 100 kilos of conservativism!

What
has significance however, is this: Divine
inspiration has prevailed as an impression that it
covers a large portion of ecclesiastic life, if not
all of it. As for contemporary Orthodox Theology,
there is tremendous confusion on this issue; what
divine inspiration is, what it means and where it is
found.

The
point that all Christians – Orthodox and heretics -
agree on, is that the Holy Bible is divinely
inspired. We aren’t as yet examining what divine
inspiration is, i.e., to what degree the Holy Bible
is actually divinely inspired. For the time being,
let us hold on to this: That
the Holy Bible is divinely inspired.

Therefore on this basis, that which is mentioned in
the Holy Bible applies; i.e., that Christ had
promised the Apostles that He would send the Holy
Spirit, Who would lead them “to the entire truth”
(John 16:13)

So,
Christ is the One who sends the Holy Spirit and, the
Holy Spirit is the One who leads us to the entire
truth.

But
now, we have the question: to whom exactly
does Christ send the Holy Spirit, and who
exactly are they that are led to the entire truth?

The
Papists reply that the Holy Spirit was initially
given to the Apostles, and through the Apostles, it
is transmitted to all bishops when they are
ordained, and that priests also participate in this
in some way. This Papist conviction is evident in
the way they ordain their bishops, where the
ordaining bishops say to the ordained: “Receive Holy
Spirit!” This leaves the impression that the
ordained has lived his entire life to that moment
without the Holy Spirit and that he receives it
during that moment of his ordination.

The
interpretational task of the Holy Bible is
undoubtedly a task of the Holy Spirit. It is the
Holy Spirit that guides the interpreters to the
correct interpretation of the Holy Bible. But how
does this happen?

It is
usual in medical science, when we say that a certain
medication cures a certain disease, we know from
prior research how the medication acts
therapeutically on the organism. In every science,
whenever we say that something has happened, that
something can be verified.

But
here, we have the following question: How does the
Holy Spirit guide, who does He guide and what is
this guidance comprised of? The assertion, that when
an Ecumenical Council rules on something, that
something is infallible because the Ecumenical
Council is divinely inspired etc., is as though we
are being compelled to accept as an infallible
teaching everything that is ruled and proclaimed by
an Ecumenical Council. This is precisely the spirit
that governs Papal infallibility.

It is of course
correct that an Ecumenical Council is infallible,
that it teaches infallibly, that it is beneficial to
our faith etc. Yes, but how can it be infallible?
Why are its rulings infallible?

Contemporary Orthodox theology speaks extensively of
divine inspiration. From what I have read, I see
them speaking of divine inspiration but I haven’t
found any description of the divine inspiration that
they speak of. We already said that the Orthodox,
the Papists and the Protestants all agreed that the
Holy Bible is divinely inspired.

Someone
might say: Very well, but were only the Prophets
and the Apostles divinely inspired? Don’t we have
any divinely inspired people after the Apostles?
Don’t we have any divinely inspired writings apart
from the Holy Bible? And if yes, who are these
divinely inspired people? And if they exist, how do
we know they are divinely inspired? We know that the
Prophets were divinely inspired; so were the
Apostles. Apart from them, who else was or is
divinely inspired? And what are the various stages
of this divine inspiration? How are they discerned?
How is man inspired by God and how do we know that
someone is inspired by God and not the Devil or by
persistent fantasies?

When Christ said that He would send us the Holy
Spirit, which would guide us to the entire truth, He
was not talking about Ecumenical Councils; that is,
He didn’t say that it would happen during the
Ecumenical Councils of the Church. In other words,
this novelty of the Ecumenical Councils’
infallibility is not included anywhere in the Bible.

Christ
had simply said that the Holy Spirit would be the
One Who would lead us to the entire truth. But prior
to that, He had said that “if you have love amongst
you, my Father and I shall come and reside amongst
you”, and He also said that “now you see me, but
later you will not see me. But if you have love, you
will see me again. And the Spirit will then come and
reside amongst you and will lead you to the entire
truth.”

All
these things that Christ said and are mentioned in
the Gospel of John and are read by priests on Easter
Thursday, are basic chapters. But why are they
basic? Why does Jesus’ prayer – the Hieratic prayer
– have such significance? Why does Jesus pray for
the unity of the Apostles? What unity is He praying
for? Could it be the unity of the Church? And what
unity is that? When Christ says “will lead you to
the entire truth”, He obviously means it within a
certain framework. What is this framework?

These
chapters 14 to 17 of John’s Gospel give a detailed
description of the Apostles’ spiritual condition
with respect to love and they define what the
results of love are. But the complete form of love
is revealed in the experience of theosis. Theosis is
the complete form of love. It is with this love,
which springs from the experience of theosis, that
man is completely cured.

This
love becomes activated when the Holy Spirit enters
man, thus making man the residence and the temple of
the Holy Spirit. And when the Holy Spirit arrives
and resides inside the person, it brings with Him
the Father as well as the Son.

Then
the entire Holy Trinity resides inside the man. But
how does man know that he has become a temple of the
Holy Spirit? How does he determine this?

A true
spiritual father knows when a spiritual child of his
has received the Holy Spirit and has become the
temple of the Holy Spirit. We have specific
Patristic criteria on this matter. What are they?

When
Christ spoke of the effusion of the Holy Spirit in
the Church and the faithful, He didn’t speak
vaguely; He didn’t say that he would send it to all
of the Church in general. Nor
because bishops and priests may have a certain
succession through ordination will the entire Church
receive it in general.
Nor did He imply that because of bishops’
ordinations there is a certain guarantee that the
Holy Spirit will reside permanently inside the
Hierarchy. The existence of a bishop is no guarantee
that a Council will be animated by the Holy Spirit.
Proof of this, is that there have been many bishops
in the Church who have been condemned as heretics.
If those bishops had the Holy Spirit, they would not
have fallen into heresy. Hence, the ordination of
someone as bishop is neither proof nor a guarantee
that the Holy Spirit definitely resides inside that
bishop. Therefore it is not the Grace of High
Priesthood that leads the Church “to the entire
truth”.

Christ here speaks of something else. The Fathers
clearly specify that Christ here is speaking of two
situations. On the one hand He is speaking of
enlightenment and on the other, e is speaking of
theosis. When Christ says “so that everyone becomes
one”, who is He referring to? To the Apostles of
course. He is asking the Father that the Apostles
“be as one, just as we are as one” (John 17:11). He
doesn’t say as one (person), but as one (whole).

But how can the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit
be one (whole)?

Reply: They are united as one, in their glory
(energy) and in their essence. As Personae,
hypostases, they are not united. Because the
Personae in the Holy Trinity – according to the
Fathers – are not in communion with each other. The
common things in the Holy Trinity are the essence
and the natural energy of essence, i.e. the Glory.

And how can the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit
be as one – the same “one” that we shall become one
with – that is, between ourselves as well as the
Holy Trinity? What will that common feature be?
Answer: It is the ‘one’ in Glory

In other words, just as the Father, the Son and the
Holy Spirit are as one in glory – because they have
glory in common – thus we shall become as one, when
we are participants in God’s glory; that is, when
all of us (or the ones who become worthy) become
participants in the Grace of the Holy Spirit – the
uncreated Light. Because when a man becomes
glorified, he becomes a communicant of the uncreated
glory of the Holy Trinity and thus is also united
with the Holy Trinity as well as those fellow men
who are also united with the glory of God.

Therefore, that which Christ prays for during the
Last Supper is, firstly, for their catharsis, then
their enlightenment and finally their theosis.

Thus,
the “leading you to the entire truth” is not
referring to all people in general, but specifically
to those who are going to participate in the
experience of theosis.
In other words, it is only when man reaches theosis,
that he is led to the entire truth..
Subsequently, the entire truth (not of the created
world, but of God) can be realized only inside the
experience of theosis.

Because
all of the Fathers had this experience or a similar
one, being either in a state of enlightenment or
theosis,
for this, they also all had exactly the same
perception of the Holy Bible and hence gave the same
interpretation of the Holy Bible in its basic
points, and the same interpretation of the texts of
the other Fathers of the Church.

What do
we surmise from the above? That
whoever is in a state of enlightenment or theosis
are divinely inspired, or not? Answer:
They are most assuredly divinely inspired.
Because divine inspiration means what? It means that
someone is inspired by God. As opposed to what? As
opposed to someone being inspired by the devil and
the demons. He will be devilishly inspired and
demonically inspired.

The
sublimest form of Revelation with regard to divine
inspiration, was that which occurred to the Apostles
on the day of the Pentecost. The key, therefore, to
Orthodox theology with regard to divine inspiration,
is the Pentecost. If one can comprehend the
significance of the Pentecost to Patristic
tradition, then, even if he is not a theologian, at
least he will know what Theology is and what a
theologian is. Just as one doesn’t have to be a
doctor to know what medical science is and what a
doctor is, in the same way, one can know what
Theology is, who the theologian is, and who the
‘theologizer’ is, without necessarily being a
theologian or a ‘theologizer’ himself.